When The World Stands Still
by Loyal-Ruby
Summary: Zafrina is forced by the Volturi to put Carlisle into a state of delusion, making him see his family die so that Aro can collect him and cause the Cullen Clan to shatter until he discovers Esme never died when he has already descended into darkness.
1. Chapter 1

**When the World Stands Still**

**Prologue – What She Must do**

**A/N: Hello Everyone, this is officially my first twilight fanfiction and is actually more of a 'test' run than anything else, so don't be too disappointed! Please review if you like it, even just to say 'Hey I like this!' would be great. Reviews inspire me to write :)**

**IMPORTANT: Zafrina doesn't play a huge role in the story as she is just the one who will create the illusion, this story is NOT about Zafrina. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Stephanie Meyer wrote, nor do I wish to, I like my own creativity. **

**x.X.x**

"Do you understand what you are to do?" The solemn, emotionless voice of Jane echoed over the forest of Forks as they stood motionlessly on the hills; both of them staring out across the little town that held one of the biggest secrets of the world revolving 'monsters'. The only place where both werewolf and vampire coexisted; and this, Aro didn't like.

In fact he didn't like the power they had or threat the Cullen clan posed, they were far too talented and far too concerned about humans to his liking. He had great respect for Carlisle but he also wanted to recruit him and hopefully turn him into the visage of what a Vampire was meant to be. He knew if he had Carlisle the entire clan would fall apart; Carlisle was, after all, the glue holding them together.

"I don't have a choice." Came the exotic voice of the Amazon Vampire, her bronze skin shimmering beautifully in the moonlight as she refused to look at Jane while they spoke. "You gave me little." She finished as she closed her eyes; she didn't want to face what she was about to do. It would bring her no joy.

"Tell me what you must do." Jane pressed, a sadistic look in her eyes, the only feature on her betraying how she felt, showing her glee at the situation.

Zafrina opened her eyes, her eyes the color of a thousand gems as they sparkled, she was beautiful, like everyone of her kind, though the pain she felt at what she had to do made it unbearable to acknowledge her beauty as she felt like a monster.

"I must go to the Cullen clan and take up residence far enough that they cannot sense me, I must invade the mind of Carlisle and give him visions of his family that is dead, killed by the wolves. I must take him through the trial of going to the Volturi to seek support. I must destroy him." She said, as if quoting it directly from Aro's mouth.

"Then go Zafrina." Jane said with a smile, as if seeing the obvious pain on the Amazon's face brought her great joy. Just as she saw Zafrina was about to leap down to the town she spoke again. "Be aware that Aro made no idle threat to you." Jane said and Zafrina froze as she still refused to acknowledge Jane with her eyes.

"I know." She said as she leapt down towards the town, silently wishing one of the wolves would sense her presence and kill her before she killed the gentlest Vampire she had ever met. Before she murdered the spirit and love in him, causing him to change into something he had worked his entire life to avoid, worked his entire life to teach his family.

**x.X.x**

**A/N: This is a very short chapter, though it's only the prologue, to see how you guys take to the story, if it's worth it I'll write on and much longer. **


	2. Chapter 2

**When the World Stands Still**

**Chapter One: Realizing what you have to lose**

**A/N: This is the second chapter, thank you to everyone who reviewed, I know the story isn't perfect, but nothing is. The chapters will vary in length from now on, though it will probably range from 2000 – 4000 words.**

**There will be some minor personality changes and other changes to fit to my story, if you think it's inappropriate you have the fullest right to tell me so.**

**IMPORTANT: English is my second language AND I am from South Africa, so I'm not completely up to scratch and some spelling here is different than the USA version. I edited some mistakes in chapter one. I would appreciate if you could point out mistakes if you see it.**

**On another note, this chapter is mostly memory based, to bring you up to speed with what happened in my version of the story, after the last book and even some changes that I made to the original plot. **

**Bear with me in this chapter as I take you through the current lives of the Cullen clan. **

**Please Read and Review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Stephanie Meyer wrote.**

**x.X.x**

It was a busy, yet tranquil day in the house of the Cullen's; everything was perfect, or so far everything had gone perfect. Bella and Edward were still happily living in their cottage with Renesmee and providing a stable home for the young Vampire.

Carlisle was, as always, busy with his medical research, seeing as there was a earthquake in some remote part of Africa, the town was an underdeveloped third world country with almost no medical support and Carlisle had taken it upon himself to help send money and resources to them to aid in healing the people and rebuilt their homes.

Alice and Rosalie were at the shops, since it would soon be Renesmee's birthday, she would be turning two years of age, and naturally Rosalie wanted to spoil the only child she had ever felt connected to and Alice loved to shop, loving the child only added to the effect.

Emmett had gone to hunt his usual prey, the bears who took his breath from him; he never hated the bears for this, actually, he loved to be a Vampire; he just liked to let them know they couldn't push him around anymore since _he _was the powerful one now. Though he was obviously still amused when they tried to fight and he often found himself roaring back at them.

Esme was tending to her garden with gentle and vigorous hands, quickly moving through the garden as she removed the weeds. Recently she had started a vegetable patch to grow a few things for Renesmee, as she didn't want her to purely live on blood.

She knew she had no reason to start a vegetable patch as she could just buy food whenever required, though the sense of loving something and nurturing it appealed to her; she would've loved to have been in Edward and Bella's shoes, they had a little beauty to look after; something none of them even perceived as possible until Edward had brought home the news of his pregnant wife; to think Edward wanted to get rid of Renesmee to protect Bella! Until he heard the little darlings thoughts of course, that was like a revelation to him.

She smiled inwardly as she remembered how Renesmee had charmed everyone, even Jacob Black, he called it imprinting as far as she recalled; though it was amazing how that had brought the two clans together. They could stand each other now and actually talked to each other regularly.

And it was all thanks to Renesmee, if it wasn't for her Jacob would never have gone out of his way to try and convince everyone that they weren't bad, Jacob had even gone and exposed himself to Bella's father!

She gave a soft laugh as she remembered when he had figured out what his daughter had become, the poor man could barely breathe and Carlisle had to give him immediate medical attention; it was probably not something to laugh about as it took him almost a year before he contacted Bella again to try and rekindle the family ties.

Let alone Bella's poor mother! She had not recognized Bella when she had seen her and in the end Charlie had taken it upon himself to explain to her what had happened, that was about 4 months ago and Renee still hadn't come to terms with it and ended up avoiding Bella instead of trying to understand her daughters transformation.

Esme gave a sigh as she tried to remember how it had felt to her when she had lost everyone she knew; but her mind kept hitting a wall so she reluctantly settled on a more disturbing thought; losing Carlisle and her family. It sent shivers down her spine and if she had tears it would've welled up in her eyes, but instead she felt a dry stinging feeling in her eyes.

She could only imagine what it felt like for poor Bella, she still had ties to the mortal world and they were struggling to accept her; and even if Bella could hide how she felt from almost everyone Esme had recognized the sad gleam in her amber eyes when she saw the look her mother gave her when she saw her for the first time.

Esme forced her thoughts away from the sad truth of Bella's transformation and instead settled on something that made her smile; Renesmee's upcoming birthday, she was turning two and almost everyone who they knew were coming to join in on the festivities to see how the little one had grown.

And it was indeed amazing how she had grown, she looked like she was between six and eight; but she acted like a grown up, except that she still wanted the love of her mother and father. She adored them like everyone adored her, but above all Renesmee loved Jacob with such a passion she sometimes thought that they had imprinted on each other instead of Jacob on her.

Jacob would take her out every day and would let her do whatever she wanted, even if it involved something that would get Jacob hurt or something he wouldn't have bothered with otherwise. Esme knew Edward was jealous of Jacob in the sense that he was being more of a father figure to her than Edward could ever be; it was as if Jacob could sense and act upon her every whim and desire before she even thought of it. Something that greatly annoyed Edward.

Esme remembered when Edward had tried to put his foot down by telling Jacob he could only come and visit Renesmee every second day; Esme let out a soft laugh as she recalled the ensuing fight.

Jacob had cussed loudly at Edward; but when he had shown no sign of changing his mind Jacob had shifted into his wolf form, tearing at Edward as if he had a desire to kill him because Edward would kill him by following through on his rule.

Renesmee had stopped them, or actually she had stopped Jacob, she had yelled at him to stop because it was hurting her; it was amazing how quickly he had calmed down because within a second he was by her side to comfort her for the pain their fighting had caused her.

To say the least Edward had changed his mind when he had seen how much the two cared for each other, it would've been impossible to separate them and Renesmee would've made as much of a scene as Jacob did; without the violence of course.

Esme sighed, it had not been funny for her when it had happened, not at all, she had actually been distraught at the act of violence; but now that it had passed it was something to laugh about, together even.

She smiled again, despite being a Vampire she was the happiest woman on earth, she had children who loved her and a husband who was worth more than all the gold and money in the world, a husband that was the light of her life; the moon of her night sky. She had no idea what she would do without him and she didn't even want to think about it; they would be together forever.

The Volturi left them alone after the battle regarding Renesmee's identity, they had nothing else to accuse them off; they were just a perfectly happy family that bothered no one.

x.X.x

Carlisle looked up from his monitor as he took the time to observe the beauty of the outside world, they were lucky to live in a place such as Forks with its weather and general beauty. Even with his trained eyes he couldn't find a flaw in the nature surroundings Forks; all of it was perfect to him.

He looked back at the monitor and saw the confirmation for the money transfer pop up, without hesitation he confirmed it, he just transferred another huge amount of money towards the 'Red Cross' foundation in Africa.

He gave a wry smile as he thought of the reaction Alice and Rosalie would give at the amount he had just given to these people; it was more than both of their cars combined. Alice would protest that she had wanted a Porsche for a long time and had to wait for her brother to get it for her for Christmas, but here he was giving it away to a bunch of people in Africa.

Rosalie's reaction would probably have been something in the line of surprise and confusion, she wouldn't understand why he cared for people he didn't know and why he felt obliged to help them would also be a mystery to her.

He had always wanted to help people, they were the fruit of the world and he still vividly remembered the year he had changed Edward, the year the plague had hit all those poor people. He remembered how he had wanted to stay there 24/7 but was obliged to act human and go rest; how it had eaten at him to be away from them, unable to help because of his 'condition'. Ever since that day he had vowed he would do anything and everything in his power to help people in need; even if it was in some remote land in Africa.

If he could save one life, make one human smile again he was happy; it brought him joy that no one but Esme fully understood. His wife was his inspiration and he couldn't remember how he had survived without her before he knew her. She was his pillar and his reason for building his family instead of letting it crumble like many would expect.

Her love and compassion had built the family he had around him now, she had shown patience and undying love to each of their children, regardless of how difficult they could become, especially when they were still newborns.

He faintly recalled Rosalie being one of the worst, until she saved Emmett of course; after that she had grown less… hostile and it had been a great relief to Esme and himself. Of course Edward had also had his rough patch but the person who had caused the most difficulties was Jasper.

He still had the insane bloodlust and had even tried to attack Bella at her birthday party, he wasn't exactly the worst to live with but he was the one who had the hardest time adapting to their specific 'diet' as they liked to call it. To this very day he was having difficulties and God forbid if it wasn't for Alice. If she were to die he would return to his old life as the Major without a second thought; the loss would be too much for him.

Carlisle gave a long sigh as he stood up from the computer, walking towards the window and leaning out; his family was beautiful and he wouldn't trade them for anything, though he was wondering how Jasper's hunt was going, this was the first time they had allowed him to go out on his own in fear of him attacking a human.

x.X.x

Jasper was hunting in the woods again as he tried to sate his bloodlust for the forbidden delicacy, the delicacy that pumped through human veins and was denied to him for more reason that his family. He knew he had to carry it through, unless he wanted to lose the people that were more precious to him than his own life. Though he never hunted with Emmett as bears were occasionally found close to human settlements and he knew if he was in the act of draining an animal and the sweet scent of a human whiffed across his senses he would not be able to resist it.

Jasper sighed as he found no animals in the vicinity; except for the birds, this was going be a long hunt.

x.X.x

Zafrina stared at the Cullen house from a distance, she knew what she had to do as she felt Carlisle's presence within the house, he wouldn't be able to sense her unless he was looking for her specifically, like she was for him.

She forced herself to put her self-worth aside as she closed her eyes and started to concentrate, making herself move closer to Carlisle spiritually.

Within a few seconds she had Carlisle in her view and she felt herself choke back tears that didn't exist in her body anymore, he was admiring the nature around him! How could she destroy something as precious as him?

She bit her lip until she felt the marbled perfection split under the force but not even the realization of self harm made her feel any better, she pushed the mild pain aside and wiped her face, as if to get rid of the invisible tears.

She had to do this, they had given her no choice and unfortunately the punishment for disobeying wasn't something she could afford; she wished they had used her life as leverage instead; because she would've gladly offered it to save Carlisle and his family from the torment she was about to shower upon them.

She pushed her emotions aside and started to concentrate. "I'm sorry my friend." She muttered idly as she began to work.

**x.X.x**

**The chapter is a bit pathetic as this is the introductions introduction in a way, hope it wasn't too bad, the action will begin in the next one.**

**Please Review, as it makes me happy and write faster. - I'm not joking about that, it seriously does. **


	3. Chapter 3

**When the World Stands Still**

**Chapter two: Carlisle's Torment**

**A/N: This is where it should get interesting, though it might be a bit confusing at start, so don't shoot and PLEASE review. :)**

**And once more, thanks a lot for the reviews and especially to all those who really liked it. You know who you are. ;)**

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm increasing Zafrina's powers, her 'illusion' will be much more real, it will include smelling and touching the environment he is placed in, also being able to pick up the 'environment', his brain will register it as real, even if it is not. So it will be like a very lucid hallucination. **

**x.X.x**

Carlisle continued to stare out of the window with a smile on his face, he was often entranced by the beauty of nature, unwavering and unchanging, always standing its ground. It was the perfect example of what a family was supposed to be. A perfect family like his.

He watched as his beautiful wife came strolling out of the trees, he was a bit surprised as he couldn't recall her mentioning that she was going to feed. "Esme!" He yelled softer than he would have if he wanted to get the attention of a human, though she would been able to hear him.

He was surprised when she didn't look up at him so he repeated his words; again, no reaction. He was about to repeat himself again when he saw a wolf, one that he didn't recognize, one that did not belong to the clan he had grown to love.

"ESME!" He screamed as he now flung himself from the window like a wild animal to protect his wife, to protect his mate and his soul from this unknown wolf, with obvious hate of vampires shining in its eyes. Carlisle bolted towards Esme; she was about 200 meters away from him.

When he was about 20 meters from Esme he saw the wolf jump her down on the ground and his brain went blank as he saw the wolf rip apart her body and in one unreal motion it was set aflame. Carlisle felt his heart stop for a second time, everything started to go slow as he saw his wife burning, screams still escaping her lips.

Could it be true? Could he be watching his wife burn? Screaming in front of him? How had she been set aflame so quickly? Had the wolves discovered a new way of killing Vampires quickly? Could this be _true_?

"ESME!" He screamed as he snapped out of his horrific thoughts when he finally reached her, the wolf standing menacingly in front of her burning remains and staring at Carlisle with a look of triumph and hate.

Carlisle ignored the beast as he shot his hands into the sweet smelling fire, grabbing for her remains, grabbing to save her from death, grabbing to save his heart from dying and dying himself. "Esme!" He yelled as he felt his body start to shake as if he was crying, but he couldn't. He couldn't even shed a tear over his wife's death!

Carlisle pulled pieces of her body out of the fire, charred beyond recognition; his own flesh melting in the fire as he worked to get her out. He ignored the pain surging through his body as he refused to believe she was dead. "Esme…" He whispered as his body was still shaking with invisible tears.

"Oh God Esme, please… no." He said as he looked at her burned face, it was pulled into a grimace of pain and disbelief and he almost felt like it was directed towards him. He looked down as his hands still lay in the fire; he deserved the pain he felt.

'_Why did you let it hurt me? Why did you let it kill me? I thought you loved me?' _A voice of pain said that could only be identified as Esme. Carlisle's head shot up as he looked at her charred head, expecting the lips to move, but it didn't.

He gasped as he realized she was speaking to him by other means. How was it possible? She was dead? His body racked with more sobs that would never emit tears as he let his hands lay dormant in the fire, watching as his flesh melted off.

"Oh Esme… I'm so sorry." He whispered as he looked at the wolf, he felt too hurt to feel anger, he felt too dead to feel like attacking the creature that took his wife's life and he had to admit that she was gone; there was nothing he could do about it as he looked at the remains. "I'm so sorry." He said as the thoughts of guilt surfaced in him.

If only he had sprung out of the window the second she didn't respond to his voice he would've been by her in time to save her from the wolf, he would've been able to hold her in his arms now and comfort her from the attack. He would've been able to _save _her.

He pulled her head onto his lap and continued to cry without tears, holding it protectively as he had finally taken his hands out of the fire, his flesh was melting off him like hot wax but he wasn't bothered, he wasn't bothered about anything but her; his lovely wife laying his arms, nothing but a charred head, nothing but a memory!

His reason for living was in his arms, dead and never to be returned. "Esme…" He whispered as he looked at the sky and his pain was so immense that he felt like it was unreal, nothing could **ever **compare to what he was feeling now.

"ESME!" He screamed towards the merciless sky and what he didn't notice was that he was crying, but instead of tears a trail blood ran down his eyes. He was the first Vampire in history to cry any liquid because of pain and loss; but then again he was one of the first Vampires to ever care for someone like he did, love someone like did and lose someone like he had.

"ESME COME BACK TO ME!" He screamed into the sky again as he continued to cry waves of blood.

**x.X.x**

**This chapter is VERY short and I'm sorry for that, but there's a reason for everything and you just have to trust my reason.**

**As for the blood, it's ANIMAL blood he's crying as he doesn't possess human blood anymore, so the blood of his most reason kill is trailing down his cheeks. **

**And please, for the love of god and my self-respect, REVIEW. PLEASE? Pretty please? You can throw an idea into your review and I'll probably use it if it's good :D**


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